This week Valerie Ward from the Muslim faith community shares her thoughts for Holocaust Memorial day:

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27th January each year. It is a time to pause and to remember the millions of people who have been slaughtered or had their lives changed beyond recognition.

Holocaust Day remembers the people, Gypsies, Jews and disabled who suffered in Nazi Germany and also those since then who have suffered in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. Today there are still thousands suffering in Myanmar, in Yemen, in Syria and in CAR.

The reason why 27th January is remembered is because it is the date that marks the liberation of the people who survived the largest Nazi death camp – Auschwitz-Birkenau.

HMD is designed to help us think about the lessons of the past and to recognise that genocide does not take place on its own; it is a steady process which can begin if discrimination, racism and hatred are not prevented.

What can we do to help prevent the steps which lead to fear, hatred, discrimination and persecution from developing in our communities?

We are all children of our Creator and as such are brothers and sisters. Our world is small and we all have to live together in harmony to allow the best of each of us to develop. The suffering of one of us is the suffering of all of us. Injustice and frustration lead to hatred what can we do to remove injustice and frustration?

I pray that we may reach the point where we can all say we feel and we act upon the motto Love for all; hatred for non, and we always want for others what we want for ourselves – and work to bring about that.